A nursing home resident’s diary

Lunch: Pork steak and gravy with roast potatoes and broccoli, and a deconstructed trifle (advertised as chocolate mousse) D has finally managed to get his own way regarding the plastic cutlery.  Having thrown tantrums and his plastic cutlery across the table for three meals running, he has been granted the privilege of eating with metal utensils.  Last night he refused to eat with plastic, and refused to even eat a slice of bread and butter since the carer had prepared it using the plastic knife.  So he had gone hungry.  I wasn’t present this morning when he did the same, I merely heard about it, however tonight he was eating with metal.  I can only assume that for the sake of peace the nursing staff have given up on him.  I do not think he would kill himself in the dining room anyway. We have been in lockdown for over a month because of a norovirus infection.  This has meant that our little dining room - not the main dining room, but only a ...

Breakfast: Flavoured yoghurt and mashed prunes, Kellog’s cereal in those little boxes, porridge (badly cooked and gluggy), toast, and sometimes crumpets and/or raisin toast, tea or coffee.  I asked for and get scrambled eggs as a doctor’s order.   This morning’s breakfast was marred by the daily screaming performance by a resident J, whose room is close to the dining room.  J was injured in a car accident and came to live here in the home, and after arriving had an accident and broke her arm badly.  The arm has not healed well and she cannot use it.  She is confined to a wheelchair and/or bed.  Each morning she has to wait for two carers to get her up for the day.  Rather than be patient, she screams and yells Help me, somebody help me! repeatedly, very angrily, along with a monologue of deprecations and accusations regarding the carers not coming to help.   We cannot go and help.  Apart from the fact that most of us are physically ...

 Tonight’s meal was a doozy in terms of drama. The meal was as usual: soup, a small plate of ‘main’ and a piece of bread and butter and jam and some fruit, and tea.Tonight’s soup was potato and leek (I think) where the leek had only a passing acquaintance with the potato.  The ‘main’ was two small patties made of peas held together by egg, with a spoonful of iceberg lettuce salad.  I passed on the patties and had microwaved ‘scrambled’ eggs and some of the salad.  The fruit was papaya. We have a relative newcomer to our table, a long spindleshanks of a man, D, who first impressed me with the twinkle in his eye - a mischievous look that attested to a lively sense of the ridiculous.  He is in a wheelchair and has very long legs so he looks a little ridiculous - the wheelchair is too small for him.  He is very deaf, which made conversing difficult, and like most deaf people, he speaks loudly.  But lately, he has become depressed.  The main ...